Finance for Engineers, Project Managers and Other Technical Professionals
Susan Hansen


Objective
This program will introduce professionals, in particular engineers, project managers and technical professionals to the tools available to evaluate and manage projects and other capital expenditure.

Key benefits
By attending Finance for Engineers, Project Managers and Other Technical Professionals, you will learn to:

  • Understand what drives some of the most common errors in business and how to avoid them
  • Break through the language of finance
  • Understand the basic accounting model and its limitations
  • Analyze and interpret financial statements within the context of industry analysis and macroeconomic fundamentals Identify risk and understand the options available to manage risk
  • Apply management accounting tools to business problems
  • Understand the budget process and forecasting techniques
  • Link financial objectives to strategy Identify key value drivers to help manage the value of a business
  • Understand different valuation techniques and respective benchmarks
  • Understand the essential tools and techniques in presenting a business case

Who should attend?
 Finance for Engineers, Project Managers and Other Technical Professionals is aimed at all engineers, project managers and technical professionals.  It is not trying to make people into accountants; rather it aims to give business people the tools to understand the numbers in order to help them make better business decisions.

Participants in this program will receive a copy of “How to Improve Performance & Profit” , by Susan Hansen, Bateman 2005.

Faculty
Susan Hansen is a Chartered Accountant (Australia and South Africa). She is co-developer and facilitator for the professional exams for the Institute of Chartered Accountants New Zealand and lectures Finance in the Masters of Engineering Management Program at Canterbury University and Masters of Project Management at University Technology Sydney.


For information about admission, please see our Practical Information.

Program Content
Day 1
Analyzing and Interpreting Financial Accounting Statements
While every organization has to subscribe to the Financial Accounting model, it is rarely if ever a good model to make business decisions from. Simply, the information comes too late and it is limited by certain concepts that will be highlighted during this program. However, as this is the model that is so often used to evaluate business performance it will be discussed in detail so that we can understand how to overcome the limitations.

  • Understanding the accounting process
  • Applying the fundamental accounting concepts
  • Evaluating the performance of listed companies
  • Tools used to identify ‘value’
  • Why ‘Cash is King’
  • Understanding commonly used words and acronyms, e.g. EBITDA, ROCE, CFROI, etc.
  • Learning the limitations of the traditional accounting model and how to overcome them
Exercises: Applying Accounting Concepts
Analyzing & Interpreting an Annual Report
Identifying Cash Flows


Day 2
Management Accounting
While Financial Accounting is compulsory, Management Accounting is not. However, organizations with excellent Management Information Systems have a significant competitive advantage. When an organization is under pressure to lift profits, a reflex reaction is often to slash costs. This will inevitably erode the intangible value of the organization. We need a more creative approach to identify ways of improving performance.

  • Understanding what drives a company’s ‘bottom line’
  • Analyzing it from a customer perspective
  • Customer profitability analysis
  • Putting a measurement system in place to include both financial and non-financial metrics

Risk in the Valuation Model

  • Managing risk and building certainty to add value
  • The pros and cons of commonly used derivatives

Strategic Management Accounting

  • Linking accounting to strategy 
  • How value drivers are identified and what benefits they deliver valuation tools
  • The most commonly applied valuation tools
Exercises: Analyzing Break-even and Contribution
Identifying Incremental Cash Flows
Applying Activity Based Management Tools


Day 3
Appraising Investment Decisions
Finally, we will look at the most widely used tools to appraise the investment decision.

  • Discounted Cash Flow analysis (DCF)
  • Net Present Value of an investment (NPV)
  • Forecasting cash flows
  • Measuring the required rate of return
    • Cost of capital
    • WACC
    • IRR

Forecasting Techniques, Tips and Pitfalls

Exercises: Appraising Investments
Estimating the Required rate of return
Forecasting Future Cash Flows
Applying Valuation Techniques

 

Dates & Fees
November 29 - December 1, 2010
€ 3,450
 
(AIF programs are not subject to VAT)